Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance - English Heritage

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INTRODUCTION 14 22 The term ‘place’ goes beyond physical form, to involve all the characteristics that can contribute to a ‘sense of place’. It embraces the idea that places, of any size from a bollard to a building, an historic area, a town, or a region, need to be understood and managed at different levels for different purposes; and that a particular geographical location can form part of several overlapping ‘places’ defined by different characteristics. Similarly, we have stretched the concept of ‘fabric’, commonly used to describe the material from which a building is constructed, to include all the material substance of places, including geology, archaeological deposits, structures and buildings, and the flora growing in and upon them. ‘Designation’ embraces any formal recognition of heritage value, including registration, listing, scheduling and inscription. 23 Our approach anticipates the proposed consolidation of national cultural heritage protection and, more importantly, avoids the suggestion that the Principles are concerned only with places that meet the particular thresholds of significance necessary for formal international, national or local designation. Beyond heritage designations, in the wider framework of environmental management and spatial planning, an understanding of the heritage values a place may have for its owners, the local community and wider communities of interest should be seen as the basis for making sound decisions about its future. 24 Sustainable management of a place begins with understanding and defining how, why, and to what extent it has cultural and natural heritage values: in sum, its significance. Communicating that significance to everyone concerned with a place, particularly those whose actions may affect it, is then essential if all are to act in awareness of its heritage values. Only through understanding the significance of a place is it possible to assess how the qualities that people value are vulnerable to harm or loss. That understanding should then provide the basis for developing and implementing management strategies (including maintenance, cyclical renewal and repair) that will best sustain the heritage values of the place in its setting. Every conservation decision should be based on an understanding of its likely impact on the significance of the fabric and other aspects of the place concerned.
25 Our definition of conservation includes the objective of sustaining heritage values. In managing significant places, ‘to preserve’, even accepting its established legal definition of ‘to do no harm’, is only one aspect of what is needed to sustain heritage values. The concept of conservation area designation, with its requirement ‘to preserve or enhance’, also recognises the potential for beneficial change to significant places, to reveal and reinforce value. ‘To sustain’ embraces both preservation and enhancement to the extent that the values of a place allow. Considered change offers the potential to enhance and add value to places, as well as generating the need to protect their established heritage values. It is the means by which each generation aspires to enrich the historic environment. Relationship to other policy documents 26 Planning Policy Statement 1 Delivering Sustainable Development (2005) includes the explicit objective of ‘protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment’. 1 In these Principles, Policies and Guidance, we provide detailed guidance on sustaining the historic environment within the framework of established government policy. In particular, the document distils from Planning Policy Guidance note (PPG) 15 Planning and the Historic Environment (1994) and PPG16 Archaeology and Planning (1990) those general principles which are applicable to the historic environment as a whole. It also provides a structure within which other current English Heritage policy and guidance should be applied. The Policies and Guidance will be updated to refer to and reflect new heritage legislation and government policy as they emerge, and in the light of experience in use. 27 At the international level, 2 the Principles reflect many of the presumptions of the World Heritage Convention, with its call to give all natural and cultural heritage a function in the life of communities. The Principles are consistent with the Granada Convention on the protection of the architectural heritage, and the Valletta Convention on the protection of the archaeological heritage, both ratified by the United Kingdom. The European Landscape Convention, also ratified by the United Kingdom, has been influential, not least for its definition of a landscape as ‘an area, as perceived by people…’, and its references to the need to consider sustaining cultural values in managing all landscapes, as well as the importance of public engagement in that process. 1 See paragraphs 5, 17-18 2 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO, 1972) Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Granada: Council of Europe, 1985, ETS 121) European convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Valletta: Council of Europe, 1992, ETS 143) European Landscape Convention (Florence: Council of Europe, 2000, ETS 176) INTRODUCTION 15
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CONCLUSION
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DEFINITIONS
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DEFINITIONS 72 Object Anything not
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